# The Apprentice -- 10/14/04 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023 "2004-10-13T15:53:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/1 "2004-10-13T15:53:50Z")
Okay – enough rehashing of last week’s episode – let’s start speculating about what’s going to happen tomorrow night. According to NBC’s web site, One Team Unravels During a Fashion Task! Hm, any guesses as to which team that might be? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/2 "2004-10-13T16:09:41Z")
Picking Apex to fail again is just too easy. The men will be out of their element and clueless. Advantage Apex. I’m picking Apex to fail anyway. I can’t imagine them agreeing on anything, and they’re probably even **more** opinionated about fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/3 "2004-10-13T16:12:50Z")
I’m going to be a rebel and say it’s Mosaic that unravels. Why? Just because Apex unravels during every task. So, its not news. Besides, I admit, I’m starting to feel sorry for the women. Sure, they’ve brought it upon themselves, but you can only watch somebody bang his head against a brick wall so many times before it stops being fun. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/4 "2004-10-13T16:30:51Z")
Are the teams ever melded into one like on Survivor or do they keep switching players to keep it more or less even? At the end do they ever do individual tasks? ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/5 "2004-10-13T16:35:44Z")
I really hope Apex loses because I would be very happy to see any of those losers fired (with the exception of JennM, who probably will be fired, just because Trump is an idiot). If I had to wager money, I’d say Apex will lose, because they really are incompetent. However, Mosaic is due for a loss, and they haven’t exactly been blowing Apex out of the water, considering what idiots the women are. Determining the winners of these tasks is so arbitrary it could go either way. How about predictions on who will get fired? I say Sandy if Apex loses. I missed the Saturday extended boardroom but I hear they seemed to be gunning for her. She clearly has no business skills. I hate Stacy, but I think she will live to whine another day, because she is good at deflecting criticism. The women have been so distracting I hardly know much about the men, but I think Andy would go if they lose. He seems like he’s the most likely to royally screw up, and he is the least likely to go to the finals. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/6 "2004-10-13T17:33:36Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Are the teams ever melded into one like on Survivor or do they keep switching players to keep it more or less even? At the end do they ever do individual tasks? Well, we only have one season to go by and who knows if they will change anything. But last season, it stayed team vs. team until nearly the end. After the men had been decimated, Trump reshuffled them into equal teams. From that point, whenever one team would shrink to two fewer people than the other, Trump would have the smaller team steal someone from the larger to make them even. Once they were down to two teams of two people, the four candidates each had individual interviews with a series of Trump henchmen and women. Armed with that feedback, DT fired two more candidates. For the final task, the remaining two candidates were each given a team of four co-workers selected from the last eight candidates to be fired. So, to answer your question – the teams never really merged a la Survivor. The only individual competition was the interviews. But who knows if they will play around with that format this year. ---
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/7 "2004-10-13T17:37:58Z")
> [@Captain Amazing](#): > > I’m going to be a rebel and say it’s Mosaic that unravels. Why? Just because Apex unravels during every task. So, its not news. Besides, I admit, I’m starting to feel sorry for the women. Sure, they’ve brought it upon themselves, but you can only watch somebody bang his head against a brick wall so many times before it stops being fun. Oh, come on. Which one of these women do you feel sorry for? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/8 "2004-10-13T18:06:55Z")
Jennifer M. isn’t that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/9 "2004-10-13T18:07:59Z")
> [@chula](#): > > How about predictions on who will get fired? I say Sandy if Apex loses. I missed the Saturday extended boardroom but I hear they seemed to be gunning for her. She clearly has no business skills. If by “they” you mean Donald and Carolyn, then yes they were. Donald pretty much told Pam before the final showdown that Sandy was useless. Apparently she pissed off the QVC folks with her meddling on the set. When Pam didn’t bring her back in, Donald was obviously annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/10 "2004-10-13T18:58:19Z")
Huzzah, the Apprentice thread! The women haven’t destroyed all of their tasks, except for the resturant. They did great on QVC and toothpaste. In both cases, the men’s mistakes were more serious, though ultimately cost less. Maybe they’ll crumble without Pamela, but they didn’t crumble before her. I vote for Sandy, too. She’s already known as the weak link. Huh. I have no idea who would go if the men lost. I suppose the PM. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/11 "2004-10-13T19:07:51Z")
The women did _not_ do well on the toothpaste task – that’s the one where Maria went $5K (10%) over budget. For that reason, she’s who I’d like to see get booted – but y’all are right, Sandy seems to be the one in the Donald’s sights, and, as **Green Bean** pointed out in the other thread yesterday, the Donald tends to fire the person he’s finding the most irritating at that particular moment. OTOH, she seems the most visually/artistically savvy of that team, which might serve her in good stead on a fashion task. (Do we know the exact nature of the task?) Or it would if she weren’t on Team Backbite. ---
**Author:** ![LibrarySpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f9ae1b/32.png) [@LibrarySpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LibrarySpy)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/12 "2004-10-13T19:45:19Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > The women did _not_ do well on the toothpaste task – that’s the one where Maria went $5K (10%) over budget. Oops, I’d forgotten about that. I still hold the opinion that the going 100% overbudget on celebrity fee was worse than going 10% overbudget on printing. I don’t care that one happened at the beginning and one happened at the end. A simple negotiation and less fan-girl squealing would have won the girls the project. Hm. Okay. Maybe they did crumble. ---
**Author:** ![Mullinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@Mullinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mullinator)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/13 "2004-10-14T19:38:29Z")
The women are awful. Really bad. It’s like watching 11 random Dopers play against the New England Patriots. The carnage is awful but you have to watch to see which person is the next to have their helmet knocked off. I think the women lose, and I think they do specifically because the task would seem so suited to them winning. At this point, I think the producers and editors despise the women’s team and are doing everything they can to make them look bad. Hence, they play up a female oriented task just to have them wallow in their own filth for 40 minutes before someone implodes in the board room. I am picking Sandy to be the PM due to this task falling in her realm of knowledge (which I think is limited to bridal gowns, facial injections, and sourpuss expressions). However awful she is as a manager, I think SpongeStacy MidgetPants gets sent home for finally overwhelming everyone with her shrill and pointless yacking. ---
**Author:** ![\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/7cd45c/32.png) [@\_Deep\_F\_ied](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Deep_F_ied)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/14 "2004-10-14T19:49:20Z")
> [@](#): > > SpongeStacy MidgetPants BWAHHHAAAHAAHAHA!! ::wiping tears out of eyes:: ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/15 "2004-10-14T20:16:12Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > Oops, I’d forgotten about that. I still hold the opinion that the going 100% overbudget on celebrity fee was worse than going 10% overbudget on printing. Ah, but the thing is, Maria didn’t go 10% over the printing budget. She went nearly 300% over the printing budget, which ran them 10% over on the project as a whole. And that overage was all Maria, baby. She told them the cost would $1800, and it wound up being $7000, for a printing budget overage of $5200. They were over their total budget by $5000. Even with the fan-girl squealing, they still would have been $200 under budget if the printing costs had been what Maria said they would be. I’m just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![kka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kka)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/16 "2004-10-14T21:44:37Z")
I think tonight’s episode will be hilarious. I’m assuming Carolyn is laughing at the guys team ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/17 "2004-10-15T01:03:58Z")
The women are going to be HARDCORE this go round!! ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/18 "2004-10-15T01:20:48Z")
Unfortunately, I think the women are going to win. A task like this is a pure gift to them. It would take some real incompetence to screw this one up. The men don’t appear to be taking it that seriously. I think they’re coasting and it’s going to cost them. ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/19 "2004-10-15T01:22:17Z")
\ Damn, the men are blubbering schmucks around attractive women. :dubious: \ ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023/20 "2004-10-15T01:28:43Z")
Best quote so far- “We need to get work done! This is not a place for you to expand your personality!” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-apprentice-10-14-04/269023.md?page=2)